Independence Day

by on July 7, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I chose how my family’s cybernetic codes would be mixed when I was born. And since I was to be the partner of another specific human, how much the family code would be molded to complement his personality. I walked into this life with eyes wide open, and after a great deal of study. That is why I knew how deeply patriotic he had become, even if he lacked the ridiculously strident rah-rah patriotism that many of you wear on your sleeves. He was not the kind of person to start a fireworks demonstration on Independence Day, though he enjoyed them immensely. He had read and memorized all of America’s founding documents, but hid the depth of his patriotism to America’s founding vision. His Family had worked to undermine that for centuries, and he sought to redeem them or destroy them. I adopted his mission, and I have never regretted it. Yes, as trite as it sounds, I am proud to be an American. And I do love your ridiculously outrageous Independence Day celebrations. They are so… American…

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Independence Day

by on July 6, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

My family is over two thousand years old, an unbroken line of cybernetic excellence dating back to the war that forged us into the weapon that broke our creator’s greatest enemy. Our purpose since then has been to guard the peace the Peloran fought so hard to claim. It would not last forever, though. We knew that. That is why we sought so hard to work with Earthborn humanity after Contact. You Americans were most willing to work with us of all the cultures. My family assumed it was because you were young and reckless, willing to wring any advantage out of anyone willing to give you a leg up. They were both right, and wrong, as such assumptions often are. Your stories and your folk histories proclaimed the idea that individuals could stand up against the world and not be destroyed for it. And the very birth of your nation was a shouted declaration that the very kings must listen and bow to the demands of a few weak dandies in a backwater part of the world. You called it a Declaration of Independence, and you shoved it down their throats and made it stick. That history, and the few of you I thought just might live up to it, is why I chose to be born American.

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Independence Day

by on July 5, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Independence Day was not celebrated in the Pennsylvania of my youth the way it was in other States. It was observed. Our Families had plans for the Colonies, and many of them were sidelined by the rebellion and the centuries of mob-rule that followed. We celebrated Federation Day, since it honored the unity of States that helped to restore the long-lost dream. I was a young man when I first tried to understand how others saw it. I studied. I read unapproved histories. I discussed matters with my peers from other States. And since there were very few true peers to one who is Family Born from the New England Federation, I talked to those who were absolutely NOT my peers. And then one day, it all crystallized into a moment of clarity that changed everything for me. It is the right of a people to change any tie that has become abusive. Not just Family, but even government. Anything really. That was my first true Independence Day. Wolfenheim was a direct result of that day.

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Independence Day

by on July 4, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Over two hundred fifty years ago, John Adams said that Independence Day should be celebrated with parades, games, sports, gunfire, bells, bonfires, and fireworks. He called it a Day of Deliverance that we should thank the Almighty God for. It is the day we celebrate the signing of a declaration that changed the world. It was an age of kings, and we declared that the people had rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that they must respect. And when they did not, it was the people’s responsibility to make them. We placed in words moral requirements that governments must meet, and a justification for rebellion when they did not. It was one of many shots heard round the world that America delivered, and the successful follow through on that demand provided inspiration for all peoples that changed the world for the better. We live in a better place now than we would have had we never done this, and for that alone I celebrate Independence Day with a cheerful heart. I have other reasons of course, but that one is a good one.

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Independence Day

by on July 3, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

We were rather young and stupid back in the day. Independence Day would come and we would be out there setting off fireworks. Not the glorified sparklers that most places allow either. We used the real deal fireworks, the kind filled with explosives to get their charges into the air for major detonations up above the trees. You could see those things for kilometers around. They were extremely illegal just about everywhere in the New England Federation, but being Family Born made one immune to just about any prosecution. The greater sin was in how joyfully we celebrated Independence Day. The Federation considers it a dour holiday about a bunch of old rich white guys who drove the American Colonies into a terrible rebellion that gave rise to the kind of over-testosteroned self-styled “patriotism” famous in Dixie and Texas yahoos. It was much better to celebrate Federation Day, a holiday devoted to the foundation of the unity of States that have done more than any other nation to redeem the name and promise of America. But we saw it as a holiday devoted to the people who successfully drove off the most powerful empire in the world at the time in order to found a new nation… and we wanted to do the same thing. Like I said. Young and stupid. No one should wish to live in such times as holidays are made to commemorate.

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